Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

Is the Minister aware that the average pupil-teacher ratio gives a misleading picture of a particular situation in some schools? Some schools have a pupil-teacher ratio well ahead of the average and if they were excluded from the creation of the average, then the examination and assessment would be skewed. Can she indicate the schools, not only in County Kildare but throughout the country, which are currently ahead of the national average and whether teachers, students and the standard of education are suffering? A reduction in class size of one child in each of the next two years is hardly a major onslaught on an element of education which is fundamental to students' future well-being. Is the Minister aware that teaching unions have expressed concerns about this issue, with particular reference to schools with a higher than average pupil-teacher ratio?

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